Shredded

Steph gets the Knicks at the Garden yet again.

Good morning. Before we talk about the game, a couple quick notes…

🏀 Karl-Anthony Towns missed last night’s game for personal reasons, and Thibs was unsure about whether he’d join them on the road trip. Before the game Thibodeau added: “When he’s ready to come back, obviously we want him back. But he needs some time right now.” Then during the game, KAT’s partner Jordyn Woods tweeted out “F—- Cancer”

Needless to say, our thoughts and prayers are with Karl and his family and we hope for the best with regard to whatever is going on.

🏀 The Knicks claimed 24-year-old 6'8" rookie forward Anton Watson off waivers to fill their final two-way spot. He was drafted 54th overall by Boston in June but the Celtics waived him over the weekend. New York can still fill the 15th spot on its regular roster.

Game 61: Warriors 114, Knicks 102

• With Mitch starting for the first time in nearly 15 months, the Knicks’ offense predictably missed KAT but managed to overcome the loss well enough with a 55-point first half.

• The defense also did its part early, although poor Golden State shooting in the first half certainly contributed to an eight-point halftime lead.

• A far more energetic Warrior team emerged in the third and New York couldn’t match their energy, getting outscored 32-18 in less than nine minutes.

• The Knicks battled back to tie it up and the bench plus OG held the fort to start the fourth, but the starters got whitewashed in crunch time.

Rarely does a single play ever truly encapsulate an entire game, but midway through the fourth quarter of Warriors Knicks, we got one that summed up this loss pretty well:

Let me set the scene for those who may have missed it…

Armed with an eight-point lead at halftime, the Knicks probably felt a little lucky entering the third quarter thanks to the Warriors going 5-for-23 from deep in the first half. Still, New York’s defense was solid for the first 24 minutes as they held the Steph Curry-led attack largely in check.

Unfortunately, that reality was short lived.

In what wound up being a 20-point second half turnaround, Golden State transformed into the perpetual motion machine that has frustrated defenses for over a decade. When they weren’t getting out in transition en route to 18 second half fast break points, they were cutting to the hoop from every conceivable angle. As icing on the cake, Steph got himself going as well, hitting several of the moonshots that have come to define the last decade of NBA basketball.

And yet, despite all of that, this was a one-point game with 6:33 remaining thanks in large part to a spirited bench performance and OG Anunoby picking up the scoring slack with no Karl-Anthony Towns to rely on. With the majority of the starters checking back in, surely the team that had won 10 clutch games in a row would find a way to pull this one out at home.

Not so much.